Monday, March 21, 2016

Identity: Who is Gideon Burton online?

Would you like to know who Gideon Burton is online??

Jo - Security

It wasn’t until I received her email that I understood the gravity of what could happen. My partner from class had been able to find enough information of me online to potentially harm, abuse, or manipulate me. In today’s society, our identity consists of both reality and virtual reality.

We lock our homes at night, we keep our purse close and we don’t reveal sensitive information to strangers on the street. We do these things to protect ourselves from theft, manipulation and corruption. However these same precautions are not practiced in our virtual identity. Too often we allow others to see who we are online which opens that door for others to harm us through our vulnerability.

We have the right to have our online identities protected from all unauthorized viewers.

Kotahi - Social Media

The conundrum of social media: When is enough, enough? When is the line drawn between entertainment and pure social brain melt?

I for one believe that social media has become a conduit for un-substantive material that strips away our identity, turning us into a mass of just followers and likers. Where is the opportunity for growth in this?

One can practice social media discipline by monitoring what they share, post and like on Facebook or Instagram, but how much of it is ever going to be worth their time?

The globalized mass we are turning into isn’t one that is unified by purpose and driven by a cause to make the world a better place, but more so a culture that is infected by the social media virus. While there are still great things that are shared through social media platforms, the majority of the content that is shared is either about cats or “hitting the whip”. We’ve become a world of consuming, that never takes the chance to truly create. We follow the norms of Social media because it is “hot” in the moment. What happens if the internet/wifi/facebook/instagram/twitter/etc., is no longer available? Will you know who you are without the crutch of Social Media and its’ norms?

Katelyn - Who you are online

What does it matter who you are online? Shouldn’t the person you are in reality be enough? Or is your online presence actually a form of reality in itself? Regardless, is it ethical for companies and employers to search online profiles of potential employees? Today, a large portion of our lives take place in a “digital reality”. As such, we have a responsibility to create online profiles that accurately reflect our identities, or risk having our online identities limit our opportunities.

Mitchell - Millenials

In the year 2016, almost everybody struggles to identify themselves. People feel lost, forgotten, ignored, bullied, degraded, etc. There is a plague of self-consciousness. The spread of this plague can be correlated to both the spread of and everyday dependence on technology.

The Digital Age is here for good. It’s not going to revert itself. Even while we, as a society, learn to right the wrongs around us, and try to become our better selves, we still become more and more dependent on technology and social media. We are sharing more of our lives. We share everything that is private to us in the hope of getting peer/acquaintance approval. In our society, as a whole, we have made this into a competition—likes, shares, re-tweets, comments. In the midst of all this, millennials strive so hard to obtain the success of social media stars.

We crave attention. Unfortunately, because of this, we’ve lost our identities. We’re starting to become social media clones.They can’t go backwards. Even though the older generations try to raise them in a traditional sense, the current is too strong. Social media is the future. So, while we sit on social media and argue about politics, religion, etc. with our biased opinions and one-up mentality, I propose the unorthodox and say, “Hit it head on.” If life has taught me anything, it’s that problems don’t go away until I realize I want to change.

As a society, especially as millennials, we need to move forward. Let the bruising continue. Let the biasedness continue. Let people fight, argue, and complain. Eventually, I promise, people will figure it out. People will have had enough. I’m not saying perpetuate it, but don’t stop it. Millennials need to forge a new identity, and they might as be the pioneers of the future of social media while they’re at it.

8 comments:

The video is compelling, especially to an audience like our class. The internet contains who we are, but can it mold and change who we are? This is a provocative question. I think you could even dip more into cyberbullying, an interesting misuse of online identity.

I loved the initial video; it really got me hooked! I thought the blog was a little text heavy. It may work best to just have links to each person's blog.

I think your theme is really interesting. It raised a few questions for me. What information that we put on the internet could potential be used to harm us. How transparent should we be on the internet? Is the social connection worth the risk?

This was a great idea. Love the video! I just want to comment on what Mitchell said about how we crave attention, and how that is hindering us from creating real identities. I am one of those people who like to see the likes, the shares, and the comments on my Facebook posts. It means that I'm being noticed! Sometimes--I confess--that I post things just to get a like. And maybe people think that if I like certain things, that's who I am. We are all more than what we like.

this was really great! I agree that the initial video was compelling and got me interested in your topic a bit more. I also agree with Michael and think it could be beneficial to discuss the topic of cyberbullying

If the purpose of this post was to get me to think about my online identity, it did this very well! As far as a hook, I love it!

As far as your argument, I would be interested to know more about each individual topic. Maybe if each person researched information about Dr. Burton that is connected to individual project topics, and add a one sentence hook connecting what you found to your individual topics.

If you also introduce this as a more general result--Dr. Burton is a normal guy, and if you can find out this wealth of information about him, what can be found about you?